News And Updates

An environmentental group called Manasota 88 has raised an interesting question about the transparency of U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam’s Congressional earmarks when it comes to the phosphate industry.

According to Putnam’s Web site all of the earmarks “are directed to public entities and universities.”

As another politican may have said, it depends on your definition of public.

Officially, the request is directed to the Florida Institute 0f Phosphate Research, a state agency in Bartow.

The question Manasota 88 has raised is whether this is in reality a subsidy for the phosphate industry, a private entity.

The industry has been lobbying for years to come up with some strategy to get rid of its long-term waste disposal and storage problem, which involves the massive phosphogypsum piles that dot the region.

This is interesting because in the past the group has concentrated more on the more dubious claim that there’s some inherent pub lic health danger in using this stuff, which is sligthtly radioactive, for roadbuilding.

The argument that the industry and not the taxpayers ought to fund the industry’s bailout on this front may be more persuasive.